This is part four of eight videos made for #GCSEHistory students focusing around key enquiry questions for #ElizabethanEngland GCSE units. This video is about the reasons why England defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588, and is organised into key factors to help students revise and prepare for the longer questions in exams. This content is relevant for courses provided by the #pearson #edexcel #ocr #aqa and #eduqas exam boards. #gcserevision

Title: Why did the English defeat the Spanish Armada?

Recap
The Armada was a fleet of 130 warships carrying 30,000 Spanish soldiers. The plan was to sail up the English Channel to the Netherlands to collect 27,000 more soldiers. The full force would then sail to England, destroy its naval defences, invade and overthrow Elizabeth.

English skill and tactics
- In 1587, Francis Drake carried out a successful raid in the Spanish port of Cadiz, destroying 30 ships and key supplies - this delayed the Armada by a year and bought precious time for the English.
- England's navy was led by their most experienced sailors, e.g. Drake and John Hawkins.
- The cannons on English galleons had a longer range and reloaded quicker than Spanish ones - this meant the English could keep their distance from the Spanish and still hit them.
- While the Armada docked near Calais, the English used ‘fireships’ to disrupt and break up the Armada’s crescent formation.

Spanish mistakes
- When the Armada sailed, they had still not fully recovered their supplies following Drake’s raid, most of the food they took rotted quickly, damaging morale.
- The Duke of Medina Sidonia was put in charge of the Armada, he was inexperienced however and often sea sick, not very inspiring for the crew!
- Poor communication led to the soldiers in the Netherlands not being ready to be picked up and no deep-water ports were available for the ships to get close to the Netherlands.
- Faced with fireships, the Spanish captains panicked and cut their anchors, this meant when a powerful storm struck, their ships were scattered and many were wrecked - only half made it back to Spain.

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